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When Abbie Lathrop left her job as a schoolteacher because of illness, she started a
new career. In 1900, she began breeding mice. These weren’t just any mice. They were
“fancy” mice.” Fancy mice had interesting or attractive features, like silky fur or unusual
colors, and their owners entered them in competitions.
Miss Lathrop noticed that some of her mice developed unusual lumps or sores. She
sent some mice to Dr. Leo Loeb at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Loeb discovered
that the mice had cancer. He and Miss Lathrop worked together with her mice to study
how the risk for cancer can be inherited. Even though she had no scientific training,
Abbie Lathrop was an excellent researcher. She noticed small details and took careful
notes.
Many other scientists became interested in using Miss Lathrop’s mice for their
research. Soon, so many scientists were ordering mice that her mouse business had more
than 10,000 mice. The mice she bred in her barn became some of the most commonly
used mice in scientific research. Abbie Lathrop was not a scientist, but her mice
continue to serve science in laboratories around the world.